Real estate, finance and consumer staples bringing best returns across UK Dividend Aristocrats

Real estate may be in uncertain waters, but there are no less than two UK real estate companies leading the charge where UK Dividend Aristocrats and the highest dividends yields are concerned.

Peer to peer lending platform, Sourced Capital, analysed the top 40 UK companies that have consistently provided an increase or stable dividends for at least seven consecutive years and are therefore classed as Dividends Aristocrats by the S&P.

Sourced Capital then looked at the dividends yield for shareholders of these companies over the course of the year based on share price and declared dividends, to see which is proving the best currently based on the cost of investing and their return.

The figures show that the strongest performing sector is the financial sector, accounting for 24% of the top 40 UK Dividend Aristocrats. Consumer discretionary also ranked high with 21% of companies operating within this sector, with the industrial sector (12%), consumer staples (12%) and communication services (9%) also performing well at present.

At 5%, the real estate sector accounted for one of the lowest percentages of UK based Dividend Aristocrats but when it comes to the companies themselves, it’s a different story.

Hammerson plc tops the table of all 40 UK Dividend Aristocrats with an impressive dividend yield of 20.7% over the last 12 months.

Investec plc flies the flag for the financial sector in second place with a yield of 15.4% in the last year, followed by Imperial Brands plc (consumer staples) at 12.7% and Marks and Spencers (consumer discretionary) at 11.3%.

Other companies to make the list within the financial sector include Legal and General Group plc (8.6%), Jupiter Fund Management plc (7.6%) and 3i Group (4.9%).

SSE plc (7.5%) is the only company within the top 10 operating within the utilities sector, while British American Tobacco plc is the second from the consumer staples sector, and British Land Company plc (6.1%) completes the list as the second real estate company in the list.